The Truth About Baby Carrots
First, let me say that I am not a nutritionist or a scientist or anything of the sort. I am just a Mom and a consumer who is somewhat concerned about what she puts in her and her family's bodies.
Second, what started me searching for information about baby carrots was an e-mail that arrived in my inbox that claimed to be from a farmer who grows and packages carrots for leading retailers in Canada. Of course, there was no source listed on this e-mail. It was pretty anonymous.
What followed was a search for information, the results of which I have gathered here on this page to share with you.
Baby Carrot Information On This Page
- What Are Baby Carrots?
- Did you know that some baby carrots are not actually baby carrots?
- Who Started This Baby Carrot Craze?
- Why Did They Decide To Make Baby Carrots?
- What About The Taste and Nutrition of Baby Carrots?
- The Creation of Baby Carrots...
- How Are Baby Carrots Made?
- The Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Fresh-Cut Vegetables
- Does Dole Do Baby Carrots Right?
- Be A Scientist And Debunk This Baby Carrot Myth At Home
- Baby Carrots Reading For You
- Baby Carrots Were Just The Beginning Of My Carrot Phase...
- Baby Carrot Bloggings
- Baby Carrot Controversy -- Your Comments, Concerns & Questions
- In Defense of Food
- A Few More Books To Help Lead You Through The Maze of Healthy Eating
What Are Baby Carrots?
In North America, baby carrots are either:
- Miniature carrots that are harvested before they are fully developed, sometimes as a result of crop thinning and sometimes as a specialty crop. They can also be a carrot grown to the 'baby stage,' or
- Full grown carrots that are cut to make them smaller and uniformly shaped.
Your Baby Carrots May Not Be Baby Carrots At All!
"I was shocked when I first discovered that (they were cut to shape)," says Jeanne Ambrose, Food and Entertainment Editor of Better Homes and Gardens. "I'd wondered how they got them all so perfectly matched to grow all the same shape and size."
Did you know that some baby carrots are not actually baby carrots?
I have to say that I did not actually think about it. I just ate them when they were offered, occasionally buying them for special occasions or for an easy, nutritious snack. I assumed that they were a good, nutritious choice for my family.
Who Started This Baby Carrot Craze?
Or, the history of the baby carrot.
Californian farmer Mike Yurosek is widely credited with creating the baby carrot. As a farmer and, I expect, as a businessman, he was unhappy with the fact that he had to throw out up to 800 tons of carrots a day because they were not 'perfect.' They might have had a bad spot or imperfections like being twisted, knobby, bent or broken and he had to throw them away. The consumer would not buy these 'inferior' products so he sometimes 70 percent of his carrot crop was tossed out.
He used an industrial green been cutter to cut his carrots into two and then put them through a industrial potato peeler to create the first baby carrot, which became known as "Bunny-Luv."
With the development of the baby carrot, carrots were reborn and became a 'premium' food. They cost considerably more than regular carrots and children gobbled them up!
Today, Bolthouse Farms and Grimmway Farms are the world's largest growers, processors and shippers of baby carrots. Even my favorite brand of frozen vegetable, Green Giant, resells carrots from Bolthouse Farms.
Why Did They Decide To Make Baby Carrots?
Carrots Sure Are A Beautiful Thing
Photo compilation by M Kasahara on Flickr.
What About The Taste and Nutrition of Baby Carrots?
Modern carrots have been bred to be sweeter because that is part of their appeal as a snack and longer and narrower as size and shape is important if you are cutting them into baby carrots! (They can get three baby carrots out of one large carrot now instead of two as was the case originally.) Carrots are bred for uniform color because, of course, if you are cutting them into baby carrots, you don't want to have a lot of color variation.
All of this has lead to baby carrots that are nice -- crisp and sweet - but without much flavor -- not much carrot taste or smell.
Baby carrots are not as nutritious as whole carrots. They are grown fast and ripened quickly and have about 70 percent of the beta carotene of a regular carrot. Plus, much of the nutritional value of the carrot is in the skin and just below that area. This part is peeled away in the process of making a baby carrot.
The Creation of Baby Carrots...
How are baby carrots 'made'? Watch the step-by-step production process...it appears pretty much the same today as when Farmer Mike Yurosek first made them.
Producepedia.com: How baby carrots are made
How Are Baby Carrots Made?
Here is the Most Important Thing, in my mind:
Some baby carrots are washed or dipped in a CHLORINE SOLUTION to prevent whiteness on the outside of the carrot. The same chlorine that you might find in a backyard pool and chlorine is a carcinogen.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Fresh-Cut Vegetables
According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the use of chlorine as an antimicrobial treatement is a currently accepted practice in the processing for all fresh-cut, ready-to-eat vegetables. (Section 4.4.) You will have your own opinion, of course, on what is acceptable and what is not acceptable to you and we know that often things are approved by the government and later declared bad for us. Does Dole Do Baby Carrots Right?
Maybe.
Dole's website claims that baby carrots are sweeter and more tender than full-grown carrots. They state that their carrots are small because they are either grown closer together or harvested earlier than big carrots.
Dole also says that if you notice a white coating on the baby carrots that just means that they are dehydrated and that you should put them in water to rehydrate them.
Others say that the white which appears on the carrots in your fridge is the chlorine coming out. Fact or fiction?
Be A Scientist And Debunk This Baby Carrot Myth At Home
If you were hoping that there was a magical solution to eating baby carrots, there just may be.
To determine whether small carrots are 'real' baby carrots read the packaging. Labels on bags of very young carrots will say 'baby carrots.' Labels on bags of carrots made by chopping them down are called 'baby-cut carrots.'
Use this as your guide and you can go on eating baby carrots without worrying about chlorine...
Baby Carrots Reading For You
- Snopes.com: Baby Carrots
- Are baby carrots made from deformed full-sized carrots that have been soaked in chlorine?
- USATODAY.com - Digging The Baby Carrot
- Baby carrots have overtaken the nation like a healthful tsunami, an orange tide that is sliding into grocery carts, pooling on dinner plates and lapping into minivans full of snack-hungry kids.
- Dole -- Baby Carrots
- Just pick up a bag of DOLE Peeled Mini Carrots in the refrigerated section of your supermarket. We pick them by hand, sort and wash them - ready to be enjoyed.
- The World's Healthiest Foods
- Great page packed with information including the nutritional value of carrots.
Are You Going To Continue Eating Baby Carrots?
BABY CARROT TRIVIA
Baby carrots represent approximately one third of the sales of fresh carrots.
CARROT TRIVIA
1960 -- Americans ate 6 pounds of carrots a year.
2008 -- Americans eat 10.5 pounds of carrots a year.
"If you get ambushed by a snack attack between meals or at social functions, bring along or request a nutritious snack like baby carrots or celery with peanut butter. The snack will help you feel satisfied and curb your desire to continue snacking."
-- Amy Grant on Healthy Holiday Eating
Baby Carrots Were Just The Beginning Of My Carrot Phase...
My carrot collection includes the best-ever carrot cake recipe, a page full of carrot humor and carrot photo fight!-
Carrot Jokes ~~ A Bright Orange Lensography!
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Carrot jokes? Brenda, you have to be joking! Yes, indeed I am...this page is full of carrot jokes and I hope to keep finding and adding more! Do not ask me how I got started on this carrot theme -- or I will tell you it all started with an innocent...
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The Best-Ever Carrot Cake Recipe
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Carrot Cake. WOW. Why should you eat carrot cake? How about because they are a great source of fiber, vitamins, nuts and other nutrients? How about just because they are delicious!!! I didn't know I loved carrot cake until I made this delicious reci...
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The Carrots Had a Photo Fight Tonight
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What exactly is a carrot? You probably already know, but just in case I will tell you that Microsoft Encarta says that it is a "thin orange root vegetable" or that it is "the thin, tapering orange-colored root of the carrot plant that is eaten raw or...
Baby Carrot Bloggings
- Healthy. Happy. Life.: Don't Eat Baby Carrots?! Chlorine and White ...
- But it seems that the 'baby carrot people' who manufacture, grow and sell baby carrots have found a way to halt the aging process of carrots. They successfully stall the 'white blushing' of carrots by....rinsing them in chlorine. Yup. ...
- Prepare Maple Brown Sugar Baby Carrots at Home | Ready2Beat
- Maple Brown Sugar Baby Carrots recipe making Tips and required Ingredients list. While dropping EC's at my other blog I stumbled upon this site named Diet Recipes Blog which has an interesting recipe with carrots.
- What do you snack on that is healthy?
- Baby carrots are good too. Drinking a ton of water is also a way to cut calories and become healthier in general. I don't remember where I read it but sometimes when we think we're hungry, all our bodies are really looking for is some ...
Baby Carrot Controversy -- Your Comments, Concerns & Questions
Should I be concerned?
Well, back to what set off the creation of this page. The e-mail I received said that baby carrots are dipped in a solution of water and chlorine and that chlorine is a known carcinogen.
In my mind, it seems like a simple choice to go back to enjoying 'real' carrots -- either regular sized ones or ones that have been harvested while babies. Then I will know that there is no chance they have been dipped in chlorine, I will know they are healthier and my pocket book will know that they cost less.
I would love to hear from you about what you think of the Baby Carrot Controversy.
chass071775 wrote...
Thanks for the information, it makes you wonder about what is actually in the foods we eat. Great lens!
Posted June 30, 2009
JacMar5362 wrote
I have a little dog that loves to chew on raw carrots. Got in the habit of buying baby carrots for him. Now I read I may be slowly killing him because they are dipped in chlorine. My goodness, can't anything be trusted these days?
Posted June 28, 2009
flipflopnana wrote...
Very informative, I knew that a lot of baby carrots were cut but have never paid attention to how to tell the difference. I will from now on, Thanks!
BTW - love the ending!
Posted May 27, 2009
AndrewGreen wrote...
I love eating Baby Carrots raw. Very good for you in any form. Interesting lens.
Posted May 21, 2009
CherylK wrote...
Very interesting. I've always wondered why some baby carrots taste better than others. Probably those that are grown as baby carrots are the better ones. However, I have recently started just buying regular carrots and cutting them myself. They're much less expensive. We grow carrots, too, but never enough. A good lens to email to my kids.
Posted May 19, 2009
In Defense of Food
Follow this link to read more about this fascinating book.
Robin (or RMS) who wrote the page at the following link says, "I have been saying that fresh is best for years at my garden cooking site, Fresh Cooking From Your Garden and am happy that Michael Pollan took a stand in defense of the same concept...I highly recommend this book as a soft reminder that everyone should be eating more fruits and veggies."
Click here to buy In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto from Amazon or follow the link to see what else Robin has to say about it.
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In Defense Of Food
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In In Defense of Food the author, Michael Pollan, expands on something most of us already know but might have forgotten. We should be eating real food. His simple seven word diet is a mantra each and every one of us should be repeating many times dai...
A Few More Books To Help Lead You Through The Maze of Healthy Eating
Amazon has a great selection of books about food. Here is a small sample of fairly recent books. You can click on either the picture or the title to reach Amazon's full description of each of these inexpensive books.
An appropriate ending...
Thank you for visiting this page!
by Treasures-By-Brenda
The Best-Ever Hawaiian Potato Salad Recipe AND
The Best-Ever Sloppy Joes Recipe
* Lens of the Day: Your Life Sentence ~~ Six-... (more)
